Chusetts



A. O. HIGINBOTHAM. LOCKING DEVICE FOR DIFFERENTIAL MECHANISM.

APPLICATION FILED AUG-5.1914.

Patented Aug. 1, 1916.

fo i a provement in Looking Devices for Differ- ARTHUR O. HIGINBOTHAM, OF WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO CHARLES B. FOSTER AND COMPANY, A COPARTNERSI-IIP CONSISTING OF CHARLES B. FOSTER,

ARTHUR O. HIGINBOTHAM, AND JEROME R. GEORC E ALL OF WORCESTER, MASS.A- I

CHUSETTS.

LOCKING DEVICE non DIFFERENTIAL MECHANISM.

Specification of Letters Patent.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, ARTHUR O. HIGIN- BOTHAM, a citizen of the United States, residing at Worcester, in the county of Worcester and Commonwealth of Massachusetts, have invented a newand useful ImentialMechanism, of which the following,

taken -in connection with the accompanymg drawings, is .a'specification.

Thepresent invention relates to motor vehicles, and in particular, to improvements in the driving gear thereof.

The usual differential gearing, employed for the purpose of permitting one of the rear driving wheels of a motor' vehicle to rotate faster or slower than the other driving wheel, as the conditions of road travel demand, is sometimes equipped with a locking device by mean's of whichsaid wheels may be constrained tomove in unison, if desired. D v v I The present invention a1ms to provide means by which the operation of 'locklng 1s relieved of the necessity for manual intervention in effecting the movement of the locking device into operativeposition, and

its subsequent movementinto inoperative position.

- Figure 1 is an interior view, partly in sec- I face of sun gear 8 on shaft 6. When the "The construction and arrangement of parts .by which my invention isattained 1s fully set forth in the following description and the claim annexed thereto, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, in

which parts in both figures.

The differential gearing shown in -thedrawings is of the usual type, and is con tion being possible tained'within a supporting casing 1, having a detachable cover 2 which is shown repinion 4, and the rotation of said bevel gear 3 is adapted to be imparted, in the usual manner, to the'jack shafts 5 and 6, which.

are operatively connected to the i-drivin'g Patented Aug. 1, 1916.

skilled in the art to which this invention appertains and hence a detailed description of the same 1s deemed unnecessary.

A sleeve 10 surrounds the housing 7 and is movable longitudinally with respect thereto. To this end the sleeve '10'ha's aperipheral groove 11- within which is disposed,

Fig. 1. Said shoes 12,- 1'2' are pivotally mounted on the ends of arms 13, 13, constituting a yoke, which is keyed 'or otherwise secured to a vertically .disposed rocking shaft 14. The latter extends through the cover 2 of the casing 1 and carries, on the at diametrically opposite points, a pair of "shoes 12, 12, only one of which is shown in outside of said cover, an arm 15 by the swinging movement of which the longitudinal movement of the sleeve 10 is accomplished.

One edge ofthe sleeve'lO carries anannular series of pins 16 which extend through correspondingly arranged holes in the housmg? and, in the position of the parts shown in Fig. 1, terminate just short of the rear ingly arranged recesses '17 in the rear face of said sun gear, and the housing .17 and the gears 8, 8 and pinions 9, 9 are thereby locked together to rotate in unison. Under such conditions, the shafts 5 and 6 are constrained to rotate in unison, no differential ac-- In order to eifect the ready locking and ,iun'locking of the device, the free end of arm '15 has attached thereto a spring. 18, the

other end of which is adapted to be secured f to one of a pair of fixed projections--19, 20

on the cover 2. In the normal operation of the vehicle, the spring is securedi'to' th e pro- 'jection l9, and serves to hold theisleeve 1.0v

with the differential operation of the.

gearing, he has simply to hook the end of the-spring over the projection 20,- whereupon the tension of said spring is exertedto draw the pins 16 into the recesses 17 as soon as the registration of said'recesses with said pins is established by relative movement of the shafts 5 and 6. A'multiplicity of pins 16, equally-spaced, are provided, and the recesses 17 are of the same number; and arrangement, so that only a slight relative movement is required to establishthe desired registration. WVh'en it is desired to reestablish the differential action of the gearing, the operator simply hooks the spring onto the other projection 19 whereupon, as soon as the road conditions are favorable to an equalization of the resistance on the two driving wheels of the vehicle, the pins 16 will be withdrawn from the recesses 17 I claim,

The combmation with the ditierential.

gearing of a motorvehiole, of a casing therefor, means for locking. said gearing, an operating member for said locking means on the exterior of said casing, and a, springattached atone end to said operating member and adapted to be attached at its'other end to one or' the other of a pair of fixed points ARTHUR .o. HIGINBOTHAM.

lVitnesses PENELOPE COMBERRACH. NELLIE VIIALEN.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five, cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, .D. G. r 

